Baltisakslased Jaan Krossi proosas
Baltic Germans as Portrayed by Jaan Kross

Summary/Abstract: The publication of the Works of Reiner Brockmann (1609–1647) in the year 2000 has once again raised the problem of the beginning and continuity of early Estonian (hymnal) poetry. Traditionally, Reiner Brockmann as the author of the earliest known original secular Estonian poem Carmen Alexandrinum Esthonicum ad leges Opitij poëticas compositum (1637) has been considered the first Estonian poet and importer of European verse systems. However, if the Estonian literary discourse is stretched a little to cover psalmodic translation as well, Estonian versification certainly dates back to the mid-16th century, supposedly even further back to the age of the Catholic Teutonic Order. This means that the eventual history of the Estonian verse has lasted over half a thousand years. The Lutheran Catechism translated by Franz Witte, published in 1554, contained six hymns by Johann Schnell, which remained popular with people for quite a long time. Syllabic-accentual rhymed verse was also used by the literati of re-Catholisation (Catechismus Catholicorum, 1585; Institutiones Estonicae Catholicae, 1623). The early 17th century, however, brought a setback connected with Lutheran hymns. The prose translations published in Gesangsbuch (1637), which is Vol. 2 of the four-volume Hand- und Hauszbuch (1632–1638) edited by Heinrich Stahl, were not singable. A more or less continuous tradition of metric hymns began in 1656, with the publication of Neu Ehstnisches Gesangsbuch.

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